


Everything Intertwined

by littlemisstpk



Series: Rhythm on the Court [7]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Asexual Character, F/M, M/M, Mild Aphobia, POV Alternating, POV Female Character, POV Third Person, Post-Canon, Snapshots, Songfic, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-05-25 18:22:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14982929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlemisstpk/pseuds/littlemisstpk
Summary: Just like the pebble causes ripples when thrown into water, relationship drama affects more than just the people directly involved.AKA, where I stash the viewpoints of minor characters and flesh out headcanons that I post on tumblr. Each chapter can be read by itself and be understandable!Title taken from the song by Tom Savage. Listenhere!Chapter 1: Natsu (Hey, Brother by Avicii)Chapter 2: Tsukishima gets called into work (All By Myself by Eric Carmen)Chapter 3: Akiteru (Have Faith by Sloan)Chapter 4: Kageyama and Hinata arrive home after a business trip (More Than A Feeling by Boston)Chapter 5: Yamaguchi does an anime convention (I Wanna Be Sedated by The Ramones)





	1. Hey, Brother

**Author's Note:**

> When Natsu saw her brother fall into a deep despair because of failed love, she resolved to never fall in love herself. Life had different plans for her.
> 
> Chapter title from the song by Avicii. Listen [here.](https://youtu.be/6Cp6mKbRTQY)

When Hinata Natsu entered middle school and joined her first volleyball team, she couldn't escape her family name. It wasn't like Yukigaoka was an exceptional volleyball school, but the fact that one of their own had become nationally renowned was enough for them to sing her brother’s praises. Natsu couldn't help but grumble at the school administrators for taking credit in Shouyou's success when they weren't there to support him in setting up a team as one of their students.

Still, she played volleyball, and because of the time she was able to spend with her sport obsessed dork of a brother, she was able to become her team’s secret weapon within a short amount of time. While Natsu had inherited the Hinata athletic genes, Shouyou remained unparalleled in athletic talent. Natsu did possess a more analytical mind, falling into the setter position well, despite the fact her height made her look like she was still firmly in elementary school, rather than starting middle school. It ended up working out well for both their practice regimens.

It was shortly after Intermiddle in her first year that Natsu started hearing her friends talk about boys in _that_ way as they entered the Sendai Municipal Gymnasium to watch the Interhigh, intent on watching advanced techniques to copy to the best of their ability. She couldn't believe it when her ace, Fumikawa, openly pointed over the railing to where her brother was wearing his “2” jersey, and loudly declared, “Sho-chan is so _cute_!”

Natsu couldn't help but be dramatic, loudly pretending that she was vomiting. “He’s the biggest dork I know. He gets super embarrassing when he gets excited.” Natsu paused, letting out a squawk that could pass for her brother’s signature sound, as the rest of the team laughed. “Plus, I don’t think he likes girls all that much.”

It was perfect timing really, as Shouyou's hand lingered on his captain’s shoulder, just long enough for questions to form but not long enough for those questions to be voiced. The look on Fumikawa’s face was priceless, and Natsu could only laugh at the serendipity of the moment. Natsu wasn’t completely talking out of her ass: at home, Shouyou seemed to only be able to talk about his team and volleyball, but it was still satisfying to shut down her friend from something that was seemingly unattainable.

When Shouyou's team made it to Nationals, Natsu was given permission to go support him. It might have been the only time that she thanked the school administration for taking credit for her brother's success, but it did come with the cost of having to do all of the required homework from that weekend before the trip. She looked at the task with the same amount of determination that her brother used in any volleyball-related task, and as she smugly handed in her homework to her teacher despite the dark circles under her eyes, she proved that “Hinata” meant “accomplishing the impossible”.

Even though Shouyou didn’t make it all the way through the tournament, Karasuno had made it far enough to garner a lot of attention. Just like Shouyou drew attention on the court, effortlessly becoming the team's mascot, Natsu drew attention in the stands, a beacon for the small, but fierce Karasuno cheering section. She heard the whispers of “chibi-chan” in a reverent tone from a team wearing red as she walked by, so Natsu glared in their direction. While she yelled in indignation at the majority of the team, who was laughing at the sight of a tiny, female and angry Hinata, Natsu couldn't help but see the one with the hair that looked like he had stuck a metal chopstick in an electrical socket looking at her with an expression she didn't recognize. As she stomped away from the situation, her heart pounding with adrenaline, she was unable get that face out of her mind, not knowing what that look meant.

It was only a couple months later that her fleeting thoughts towards that cute stranger in Tokyo left her mind completely, as Natsu went from being a first year to entering her second year. It was at that time that Shouyou graduated high school, ecstatic about moving onto the next step. She quickly became worried when she saw Yamaguchi essentially drag her brother towards where she was waiting with their parents after the ceremony.

The person that Yamaguchi returned could barely be called Natsu’s brother, as the vivacious, indomitable personality seem to just be _gone_ , the sunny smile that he gave freely absent, making his face look gaunt in the short span of an hour. Despite their parent’s urging for him to tell them what was wrong, Shouyou simply shook his head silently as he unconsciously made his way towards the station. Natsu could only follow.

When Shouyou ended up camping out in their family toilet the next day, still half drunk and mumbling about Kageyama, Natsu remembered that tender moment she had inadvertently lampshaded for her friend. She brought a hand to her face, the little things she had noticed but never given context: the lingering touch, the admiring gaze, and sheer amount of airtime he had given Kageyama as he talked about his day. Her thoughts swirled until she finally came to the conclusion that where her brother gave his love so freely and allowed himself to get so hurt, she would never put herself in that situation, and the shoujo manga that she used to love to read were resolutely wrong.

~~~~~

As Natsu entered high school, she purposely chose a school that was not Karasuno. She had no naive dreams to follow in the exact footsteps of the Little Giant as her brother did, but she did respect his daring to dream. Still, Yukigaoka High was the closest high school to her mountaintop home and had high academic standards as well as a decent girl's volleyball team, so she tentatively smiled as she smoothed over the pleats in her blue plaid skirt, tidied the lapels of her navy blazer, and adjusted her powder blue bow that sat above a grey sweater vest before walking through the school gate. Finding her way to class five, for the first time since elementary, Natsu was not continually compared to Shouyou, which was refreshing.

For Natsu, high school was a blur of college-prep classes, top 4 prefectural volleyball finishes, and an endless line of short-lived boyfriends. After she dumped the fifth boy once he started to get too attached and wrote her bad love poetry, the one thing he was able to provide was a handy metaphor to soothe the wounds of the next twenty she dumped. She was the sun on a winter's day, charming, great to look at, blinding even, but inevitably cold. Natsu just preferred to be numb than to be burnt.

Despite the association with winter that was at odds with her name, Natsu managed to be successful, gaining a handful of invitations from several universities in Osaka, Sendai and Tokyo. With the word that Shouyou was transferring to Tokyo for work, Natsu followed, choosing the university with the best social work program that also gave her a scholarship. While Shouyou had gotten better and more lively as he entered the working world, Natsu couldn't help but worry that he would slip into the near catatonic husk of a person that still haunted her nightmares.

After Natsu moved into her dorm and texted Shouyou to remind him to leave the cave he called work on occasion, she made it to the first volleyball practice in the fourth gym. She caught sight of him immediately; his jacket indicated that he was the assistant coach, and the years had treated him very well, despite the fact that his hair still looked like he had stuck a metal chopstick into an electrical socket. She felt his face turn to her, and the look of surprise on his face was not surprising to her, as to most volleyball players a little older than her, Natsu was simply Shouyou with breasts.

Natsu strode confidently across the gym floor, and as the coaching staff was introduced, she was able to put a name to the face for the first time in six years: Inuoka. She laughed to herself, remembering the glee on Shouyou's face as he recounted in barely understandable onomatopoeia after his first Golden Week training camp about his adventures in making friends with the enemy. Inuoka’s brown eyes carried the same twinkle that used to make her brother charming, and Natsu could feel her heart pound in her chest in a way she hadn't felt since she was twelve and thought it was simply an adrenaline rush.

Practice was made even more difficult as Inuoka’s coaching method was energetically encouraging, his exuberance triggering a flash of memory of being nine years old wearing a pink turtleneck and short pigtails and hearing the same laugh as she poorly received the soft ball--

As Natsu took a drink of water, she looked towards the taller man, and couldn't help but think that Freud would have a field day with her thoughts.

~~~~~~~

It was shortly after midterm exams when mission Avoid The Coaching Staff finally backfired. She had it down to a science too: arrive a minute late to avoid socializing, leave a minute early to avoid catching extra attention, and use every ounce of effort into the drill being run at any given time to distract her from the gaze that set her heart pounding every time. Seeing Inuoka approach her directly, she felt like she had dodged the live barrel for too long, and lost the game of Russian roulette that she had been playing.

“Hinata-san--” he began.

Natsu stopped him before he could continue. “It's Natsu. I'm not my brother,” she corrected.

Tilting his head in acknowledgement, he began again. “Natsu-san, I couldn't help but notice your skill as a setter. I think it would be wise to go over some of the standard formations so that you're ready as backup for the practice match in two weeks. Would you be available sometime soon to go over these?”

Natsu could barely make out the words he was saying over the heartbeat, so she agreed blindly to whatever Inuoka had just said. The smile she received was worth whatever she agreed to: it lit up his entire face, the right side of his mouth curling upward slightly more than the left, and the asymmetry only made the effect better.

Later that night, that smile fueled Natsu's fantasies as she released her pent up frustrations with her deft hands. As she lay back on her bed, catching her breath, she was horrified as she thought that Freud would _really_ have a field day with this.

~~~~~

Natsu managed to bug her brother in person roughly once every two weeks, and the years of good-natured insults had turned Shouyou from an effective zombie to someone who resembled who her brother used to be on occasion. Mostly, the visits consisted of her sharing the day to day boring details of her life at school, and him sharing the boring details of his work, often over videogames or movies. Still, Natsu could measure how good of a day Shouyou was having by how quickly he became indignant at the shrimpy jokes, even as time made their banter a comfortable routine rather than having actual bite behind the words.

It was one of his good days, as Shouyou fired up his Playstation to continue their run through Diablo 3. As Natsu hogged the screen to manage her wizard's inventory, Shouyou turned to her, saying, “Sou tells me you've made quite an impression on him.”

As Natsu switched over to her ability page to check that everything was just so, it took her a moment for it to register that Shouyou was talking about Inuoka. “He asked me something today, and I said yes to it without even realizing. I wasn't even listening, too. I'm still trying to figure out what it was.”

Shouyou laughed, the rare musical sound brought a smile to Natsu's lips as she returned to the active game. “You don't strike me as the type to agree without listening.”

Natsu sat back as Shouyou started to do his thing on the screen. “I normally don't. I didn't earn the title ‘the Ice Queen of Yukigaoka’ by becoming a ‘yes man’, that's for sure.”

Shouyou frowned as he returned to live play, his inventory management taking far less time than Natsu's, as she realized he was unaware of her high school reputation. As they wordlessly moved their characters in tandem, their strategies well established, Natsu concluded that just as Shouyou didn't know about her perceived promiscuity, she knew next to nothing about his love life, as he could be a twenty five year old virgin and she wouldn't know otherwise.

Looking over at Shouyou's blank face, Natsu could only mourn the loss of a good day.

~~~~~

It was Natsu's twentieth birthday, and the older members of her former team decided to drag the newly-legal setter out to several bars in celebration. If she was the one paying for her own drinks, Natsu would have insisted on a pre-drinking ritual and her going to get the alcohol herself. As it was, her friends could only afford a single drink each as a present, and Natsu was not going to turn free alcohol.

She had only made it halfway around the table for her birthday gifts, and Natsu's limbs hummed pleasantly. Her barbs became faster, her smile a little wider, and based off her experience with the after tournament parties, Natsu was approaching her ideal level of drunk.

It was just as Natsu finished her fifth drink and reached for her sixth that Fumikawa pointed across bar towards an unfortunately familiar figure. “Is that _Coach_ over there?” Just as Natsu's face turned traitor and flushed rapidly, Inuoka turned his attention to the loud table of drunk and very tipsy volleyball players that Natsu was incoherently arguing with, and as she sat back in her seat to pout, she saw him approach.

“Looks like quite the party here.” Inuoka’s eyes sparkled with amusement.

“It’s Natsu-chan’s birthday!” Endo, the main middle blocker, exuberantly raised her hands in celebration, and as Natsu tried to leave her spot undetected, she was surprised that Endo had not slurred her words too much.

Fumikawa saw Natsu try and make her escape from the booth, and as she was part of the way through standing, the wing spiker pushed the setter just hard enough for Natsu to lose her balance, sending her careening forward.

It seemed that Inuoka had either not began to drink or could hold his liquor well, as Natsu didn’t fall to the ground, but into his arms. She found herself giving a test squeeze on his arms before pushing herself upwards, and found them to be firm and large, as they were flexed in order to keep her from falling to the ground. Pushing herself upwards, she gave Inuoka’s arms an appreciative pat before continuing on her way. Before she could leave his reach, he leaned in, softly saying “happy birthday” in a low enough tone that made her stomach warm from the inside out, and the base of her spine tingle.

After the second bar and several drinks later, Natsu found herself leaving with a tall man with bright eyes, only too happy to forget the face of her coach and childlike crush.

~~~~~

Natsu made it through three years on the university volleyball team before she gave up, her head not in the game, but on a certain coach's smile. She had thought that familiarity would make her teenaged feelings go away, but if anything, it only made her more distracted, even though she kept a calm exterior. Still, there was only so much that pure athleticism could accomplish, and if her brother studied people to connect and make them talk, then Natsu studied them to protect her and her family from those who would want to harm, especially if it was hidden behind a smile.

After a disastrous couple months of being unable to keep focused on her social work degree, Natsu realized that not only did she inherit the Hinata athletic talent, she also inherited the Hinata inability to focus, even if it was a milder version of her brother's handicap. After a short period of reflection, Natsu concluded that the only thing that had changed in her routine was the amount of exercise she had built in to her daily schedule, going from a rather large amount when she factored in the extra volleyball practices to her current level, barely walking across campus. A memory of Shouyou rushing up to his room on a university break after a run sparked an idea within Natsu.

It was how she found herself at the track, shivering slightly in her cold-weather workout clothes, as she running outside always felt better than running indoors. The music blaring in Natsu’s ears made the early hour in November only a little more tolerable, but she was also well aware of how she looked when it was too early to think, which her former teammates called the “scary setter face”. As she made her fifth lap around the track, Natsu could feel the fog in her brain lift as she closed her eyes and let the rhythm of her steps guide her forward.

As Natsu’s body slammed into something with a sickening crash, she scrambled for air, having knocked the wind out of herself. She still fared better than her target on the ground, as he was splayed out fully spread eagled. Her face started to drain of colour as she realized the one person she was literally trying to run away from was currently at her feet, but she quickly schooled her expression, hiding her horror behind raised eyebrows.

“I would have thought that you would be better at keeping upright after spending that much time on a team with Lev.” Natsu’s new mission, taunt and deflect, seemed to be working splendidly, as Inuoka looked up at her from his spot on the ground, letting out a hearty laugh.

“He did end up getting better about his enthusiasm, over time. However, we were both middle blockers, so I didn't have to deal with that directly most of the time.” Inuoka stood up, brushed the dirt off the well-worn Nekoma tracksuit, and leaned in towards Natsu, ever so slightly. “I'll let you get back to your run. Keep your eyes open, and don't be a stranger!”

As Inuoka ran off the track, Natsu began to run again, more distracted than ever.

~~~~~

It was near the end of Natsu's final year of university, and she found herself visiting her brother more often to complain about the workload and try to avoid her work. Shouyou didn't fall for her tricks, and often sat her down at his table with her laptop. He would ask questions about her work as she thought out loud, and it helped her shape her piles of research papers. She realized that it might also be a strategy that Shouyou used to keep his tight project deadlines, and welcomed it for the gift it was.

After her last midterm was when things changed. Instead of being cooped up in Shouyou's cramped apartment as they normally were, they were at the ramen stall down the street. In between slurps of noodles and idle conversation, Natsu took in her brother's new appearance. The change was immediately apparent, and she didn't hesitate to smile and insinuate him getting pretty for a date as they met up. Natsu knew that it was a good day when Shouyou sputtered and protested heartily instead of shrugging noncommittally. He was wearing clothing that actually fit his slim frame properly, and his hair was cut in a way where the top was kept quite a bit longer, but the sides were quite short but blended nicely with the rest. His formerly shaggy haircut made them look extremely similar, as Shouyou had settled into being 167 cm tall as an adult, and Natsu was only a couple centimeters shorter. After Shouyou mentioned he had a new on-camera assignment, Natsu recognized the change for what it was: faking it until he made it. Still, her brother was vibrating with excitement in his chair in a way she had not seen in nearly ten years, so Natsu stopped worrying about how long her brother would be happy, and reveled in the moment with him.

It was not long after that Natsu caught the interview with Kageyama, mostly because their combined faces became a meme for a schadenfreude-filled situation, with Kageyama sporting a truly hilarious grimace that he tried to pass off as a smile, and Shouyou doubled over in the throes of an intense belly laugh. It took several playthroughs of the live footage to reconcile the idea of Kageyama, whose name she had heard in drunken ramblings ten years previous being powerful enough to cause such diverse reactions. Her only hope was that Shouyou would stay okay.

~~~~~

It was graduation day, and Natsu went and found her volleyball friends to gather for a final group picture. Even though she had not played with the team for the year, she was still considered an honorary fourth-year, and Fumikawa insisted that she join the photo. Natsu briefly thought that it was the ace’s way to fawn over Shouyou up close now that he was a public figure and not simply an editing monkey hidden in a newsroom basement. She looked between her friend's wonder-filled eyes to where Shouyou and Inuoka were animatedly reliving their glory days, and smiled at the pure happiness that radiated from pair as they communicated in sound effects rather than comprehensible Japanese.

For the first time ever, that feeling inside Natsu that inhabited every limb when Inuoka was within sight was not a pillow smothering the air out of her, but a warm blanket that caressed her limbs. It was not unwelcome that Inuoka was pressed closely against her to keep in the frame, and if Natsu was the betting sort, she could have sworn she felt goosebumps on his arm where they touched despite the warm lobby. She pondered the situation as her parents invited the coach to their family reservation at the restaurant to keep Shouyou's smiles going.

The five of them split into two small groups as they made their way to the restaurant. As Shouyou walked between their parents and chatted, Natsu couldn't help but laugh that despite his wishes to become tall, when he stood beside their parents, they essentially formed a straight line of short people. Inuoka leaned in towards Natsu, making a quick joke at Shouyou's expense, and his breath near her ear caused a shiver that went the length of her spine.

Unlike her birthday trip to the bars over a year ago, Natsu found herself not resisting the sensations that Inuoka’s presence was giving her body. She steadied herself on his shoulder as she pitched forward in a laugh, and by the time Shouyou turned around in curiosity, Natsu could see the pink tinge on Inuoka’s face. It was a good look, Natsu decided, and wondered why she didn't discover this before.

At the restaurant, Natsu's mother made a point of sitting beside her. As they watched Shouyou and Inuoka engage in a spirited discussion about former training camps the two had shared, her mother leaned in to whisper, “He seems nice. You going to bring him home more often?”

Natsu's face turned an interesting shade of red, and her mother laughed the same laugh that Shouyou wound up adopting, genuine, melodious, and loud. As Natsu looked away with a sour expression on her face, she softened when she caught sight of her father's proud face, and Shouyou's excited expression at Inuoka’s current story. For the first time in nearly ten years, Natsu felt like she could be truly and completely happy.

Once the meal had finished and her mother was distracted, Natsu took the opportunity to exchange numbers with Inuoka as he left her company.

~~~~~

As Natsu worked on getting licensed, she was grateful for the distraction that Inuoka’s daily texts provided while her studying intensified. The texts themselves were tame and riddled with kaomoji on both ends, but they broke up monotonous days nicely.

Shortly after Natsu was able to set up her practice, which happened to be located steps away from her alma mater, she discovered that Inuoka’s schedule at the University aligned quite nicely with hers in the morning, allowing for a weekly shared coffee break. If the weather was nice, they took their cups to the nearby park to enjoy the outdoors, but with or without sunshine, they didn't miss their date. It quickly became the highlight of her week.

Natsu was sure they were dates, at least. They had a favorite bench, and they held their cups in opposite hands so that their arms that were close without touching could nearly send the electric tension between them skyrocketing. She was sure that these moments would have fit in with the shoujo manga that she given up reading in middle school, complete with the “dokidoki” sound effects written so that they surrounding her.

She had no explanation for her behavior until by chance, one of her clients reminding her of Shouyou. He was rejected by the person he considered his true love, and the ensuing emotional chaos impacted his work to the point that he was nearly incapable. It was during their third session, when he was comparing his own inability to cope with his friend's, that she finally said to him, “You're not him. Nobody deals with things the exact same way.” As they walked through a healthier thought process, Natsu realized she should have said those words to herself long ago.

On her next coffee in the park, not long after he had given her permission to call him Sou, she turned to him on their bench.

“I feel like I owe you an apology.”

Sou looked puzzled. “Why would you need to do that?”

Natsu laughed, explaining, “I was helping a client recently, and realized that I should have listened to my own advice years ago. As result, I treated you unfairly.”

“So you _were_ always running away after practice because of me,” Sou responded, amused.

Natsu gave him an exasperated but entertained look as she continued. “I mean, after what happened to Shouyou, I didn't want to end up like that. Ever. So I swore off all fairy tale romances and set my sights on what was realistic.”

“So what changed?”

Natsu squirmed in place. “You made me feel like I was in a shoujo manga.”

As Sou laughed, Natsu felt his hand softly touch her thigh. The skin under her dress pants sparked with energy, and she felt heat radiate from the spot where they were connected. She leaned up towards his ear, and whispered, “I'm glad I finally came to my senses.”

Sou pulled back just enough so that he was able to capture Natsu in a heated kiss that she returned readily. Just as she moved to take control of their embrace, Natsu came to her senses to realize that not only was her break coming to its unfortunate conclusion, but they were making out in the middle of a public park like teenagers. As she left, an idea came to her mind. “I have to actually get back to work now, but that doesn’t mean this has to end. Are you doing anything tonight?”

Sou countered her question with a smile.

~~~~~

It was a weekend morning a few weeks after she finally fessed up to her feelings, and she found herself alone in the bed she usually shared with Sou. The early morning light shone uncomfortably in her eyes as she shifted the covers across her naked body. When the smell of bacon wafted through the doorway, the initial thought of being left alone vanished as her stomach grumbled. Rifling through Sou’s clothing, she found an old Nekoma shirt that was the length of a mini-dress, and after pulling it over her head, declared herself decent enough to enter the kitchen. She placed her head in between Sou’s shoulder blades in an attempt to nap as he cooked, he could only smile at her, Natsu’s face being obscured by her rat’s nest her bed head had created.

“Tomorrow night, I’m going out with the boys. It’s a semi-regular thing.” Sou turned to attempt to speak to Natsu face to face.

She lifted her head, confused. “Are you asking my permission to go?”

Sou laughed. “I didn’t get far enough to explain. Would you like to come with me?”

As Natsu frowned, she mumbled to herself, “That’s a big step.”

“It’s up to you whether you want to come or not. The invitation is open.”

While Sou stirred the food on the stove, Natsu pondered the proposal she was given. Things had been going well by her reckoning, extremely well, so it felt inevitable that she would meet his friends sooner or later.

“Yeah, I think I’ll come.”

It was how Natsu found herself in an izakaya with former Nekoma players and a couple notable exceptions. She found herself under the withering gaze of Shouyou as she showed up arm in arm with Sou, clearly unimpressed with her choice of partner. Natsu simply shrugged an unapologetic apology in return.

After the group had settled in and started looking over menus, Natsu took a moment to notice that tonight seemed to be a very good night. The smiles were coming very easily to Shouyou’s face, and the change was significant enough for even the most dense of the volleyball players at the table to notice how content her brother seemed to be. Shouyou’s happiness seemed to spread through the group, increasing the positive energy of the ambient conversation.

As Lev perked up, he asked Shouyou loudly enough for the entire izakaya to hear, “So who's the lucky girl?”

It was at this moment that Natsu remembered Shouyou mentioning over text that he was spending a lot of time at Kageyama’s. Natsu took the moment and the fortituous placement of being directly across the table from Lev to kick him sharply in the shin. Lev didn’t become indignant at her response, but seemed used to the violence, as Lev’s girlfriend gave him a look. Shouyou seemed to be very used to Lev’s lack of tact, and laughed at the tall man’s comment.

“I like how you assume that there's a girl involved.”

Taking the moment to tease her brother, Natsu narrowed her eyes and smiled her widest grin. “It wouldn't have anything to do with how much you've been over at Kageyama's place lately, does it?”

Kageyama’s name seemed to bring everyone’s attention toward Shouyou, who looked like he wanted to run away from the spot. Kenma, who had been playing on his phone the entire time and let Kuroo be social for him, looked up and stared at Shouyou with a blank stare that Natsu could only guess was his form of curiosity. Before she could stop him, Sou was leaning over the table, and indicated a spot on Shouyou’s neck that would be prime territory for a hickie that Natsu couldn’t verify if it existed or not, as Shouyou jumped with a noise as he covered the area with his hand, his face flushed a deep red.

While Shouyou pulled out his phone to withdraw from the situation amidst the incredulous laughter around the table, Natsu sharply elbowed Sou in the side, and inadvertently hit him hard enough so that he coughed with the force of the air leaving his lungs. Using all her practice at the Hinata homestead to gain airtime for conversation over the dinner table, she punctuated her action with a loud declaration, “Hey! It’s my job to make him paranoid, not yours!” She watched Shouyou closely, feeling guilty that she had been the one to bring this potentially bad day-causing attention upon him, especially as she heard the term ‘workaholic’ being bandied about.

It was when Shouyou smiled widely at his phone that Natsu finally released the breath she didn’t realize that she had been holding. “The stats are really high. I think the twins have gone viral.”

As Shouyou handed over his phone to share the video in question, Natsu looked to see two very similar looking blonde boys loudly harassing Ushijima, a name she only recognized because of the amount of times she heard about her brother’s vendetta in his first year of high school. It was adorable, really, and it was plain to see that Ushijima was far from perturbed even as he stomped around the gymnasium burdened by two four-year olds using him as climbing equipment.

“They really do look a lot like Tsukki, don't they?”, Bokuto noticed.

“I noticed this right away, and called them the Saltshaker Twins.” Kuroo paused for a moment. “It seems to have stuck.”

Shibayama added, “It seems like karma, really. That asshole ended up getting tormented by unruly children for the rest of his life.”

“At least they’re entertaining, like his interviews with Kageyama before the accident.”

As the conversation continued, Shouyou suddenly took out a notepad and started to write furiously. Natsu could see the kanji that she took to mean co-host, which caused her to smile, confident that Shouyou’s bad days would become a thing of the past. As she interwined her fingers with Sou’s, she rested her head against his arm, and Natsu felt like things would work out for both herself and her brother.


	2. All By Myself

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsukki gets called into work, despite planning an actual weekend outing with Tadashi and the kids.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I posted this on my tumblr (same name!) a little while back, because I was working an extremely boring shift in the pharmacy. This was the result.
> 
> The song is [All By Myself](https://youtu.be/-o9gf_soFBM) by Eric Carmen, because Tsukki is being a little melodramatic here.

To say that Tsukishima was in a bad mood was the understatement of the century. He had the bad luck of working a weekend shift when he wasn't supposed to, as his regular coworker, Sato, had gone and eaten conbini food that had gone bad. It didn't help that it was supposed to be a day spent with Yamaguchi and his boys hiking up a mountain, the attraction of being away from the crowded city appealing to Tsukishima’s miserly heart. As it was, he was the only person on staff not on vacation who could mix IV bags with any amount of competence and not imprisoned in a toilet due to questionable decisions.

This particular day was a slow day, with the space between new orders far too long for Tsukishima’s liking, and the extra work completed hours ago. He gave a languid spin to his chair, focusing on one of the metal intersections that held up the ceiling’s tiles. The pockmarks that textured the tiles became concentric circles as his chair moved in place, doing nothing to dull the boredom that was still preferable to joining the dispensary staff outside his anteroom.

It was in the fifth free spin, just as the chair was beginning to slow, that Tsukishima became aware of the buzz coming from his phone on the counter. Placing his feet firmly on the ground, he unlocked his phone to find that Yamaguchi had sent him a selfie with a stunning vista in the background. He must have crouched to take the picture, because Yamaguchi’s face was level with Takeshi and Takenori. Tsukishima idly wondered how many tries and which combination of filters it took to make this picture what it was, which was a perfect grouping of his favorite people.

Right after he set the picture as his computer’s background, he returned to the message to reply.

_Me: I hate you. I hate you so much right now._

Tsukishima studied the larger picture he had set to make his work station more home-like, marveling at how the sun reflected off the growing number of freckles that each of the three photographed people sported. On his sons, they were cute, and served to hide the fact that they were steadily growing into their father's twisted sense of humour. On Yamaguchi, Tsukishima couldn't help but think about new ways to connect-the-dots, not unlike that notable time with strawberry flavored cake icing as he worshipped Yamaguchi’s body.

The phone that was still clutched in Tsukishima’s hand vibrated three times in quick succession, and as he read the messages, he couldn't help but laugh.

_Tadashi: think of this as payback for the fries._

_Tadashi: but dont worry, ill make it up to you_

_Tadashi:( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_

Tsukishima’s thoughts flickered quickly to the moment in question. He had taken a selfie featuring a red fry box in the foreground of the shot and wrapping his tongue lewdly around a particularly long fry. He had the short term satisfaction of receiving several texts full of button mashed incomprehensiblity, and the long term satisfaction of being barely able to sit at his hood the next day. The memory of Yamaguchi taking total control burned into his skin even weeks later.

_Me: I'm holding you to that._

The raw ache inside of him immediately took him back to his second year of high school, before the fear of losing Yamaguchi took complete hold and turned him into a heartless monster whose assumptions broke two people with a single sentence, causing a rift between the two that lasted for nearly twelve years. If he had not been stuck in an area where anyone could walk in at any moment, Tsukishima would have slipped his hand under his hospital-issued scrubs and taken care of his growing problem as if he were fifteen again instead of being in his thirties. As it was, he thought of his last conversation with Hinata, who reveled in sharing every lascivious detail about his relationship with Kageyama, and that sufficiently killed the mood that had started to develop.

_Tadashi: ill even bring the rope._


	3. Have Faith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsukishima Akiteru was eternally an optimist. Even though it was mostly his fault that his relationship with his brother had fractured the way that it did, he determined to be a part of Kei's life, one way or another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title of the chapter comes from the song, ["Have Faith" by Sloan.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLzQkFDrA-c)
> 
> Just saying, this entire album is one of the reasons I have not overworked myself into oblivion.

When Tsukishima Akiteru was six years old, he was a carefree, easygoing child, and loved being around people. People loved being around him too: the large amount of cookies he was able to get from the next door neighbor was only one of the favours that people tended to bestow upon him. He also had no shortage of friends, and though he towered over everyone else in his year and even the year ahead of him, he simply became a beacon for other kids to gather around.

It was when Akiteru was six and halfway through his first year of elementary school that his baby brother came home. His mother explained to him that just because his brother needed a lot of attention right now, that didn't mean she loved him any less, and things would even out in time. Akiteru understood, and used the extra time alone to spend with his friends, often playing volleyball.

Kei quickly outgrew the stage where Akiteru thought he looked like a bald alien, and on occasion, like an adorable baby. These times were few and far between, because to Akiteru's eyes and ears, all Kei seemed capable of doing was crying at high volumes and for long periods of time, enough their mother cried in front of her sons in helpless frustration multiple times. It became a thing where Akiteru often left the house to practice his setting against the backboard of the basketball net outside just to find peace and quiet.

It was in one of these long crying fits that Akiteru leaned over his brother, frowning at the scrunched-up face that was currently assaulting his eardrums. In one of those split seconds that Kei paused to catch his breath, he finally opened his eyes, and stopped crying at the sight of his brother's face. Kei's gaze was unfocused and a little teary-eyed, but the still-blue eyes that were already starting to turn golden looked directly into Akiteru’s, and there finally was quiet. Their mother took the opportunity to place Kei on Akiteru’s lap in order to make the evening meal in peace. He didn't immediately know what to do with the baby that was thrust into his care, but he heard his mother suggest from the other room, “Talk to him. He'll understand you in time.” It might have been the sound of Akiteru’s voice as he talked about playing volleyball with his friends, but when Kei's face split into a wide, toothless smile, he couldn't find any words to describe how good it felt.

From that point forward, Kei only had eyes for his brother. When it came time to put Kei into kindergarten in order for their mother to return to work, she received feedback that Kei didn't get along with the other kids easily, preferring to steal and hoard the toys rather than share. Akiteru saw none of this, so he was confused at why his mother was frowning so deeply. He simply saw the wide eyed wonder coming from behind thick plastic frames that almost dwarfed Kei's face.

It was when Akiteru started middle school and Kei started elementary that Kei's antisocial behavior hit its peak. In desperation, their mother took Akiteru aside, frantically asking her eldest son to get through to him. “He listens to you,” she pleaded. “He won't listen to me.”

It was how he found himself tossing his volleyball against the basketball net, with Kei sitting on the platform, watching. Through the corner of his eye, Akiteru could see Kei's face following the track of the ball as he talked about velociraptors, absently kicking his feet through the air as his feet didn't quite touch the ground. As Akiteru caught the ball instead of going for another toss, he turned towards his brother, finding an opening for his mother's mission. “Mom tells me you’ve been having trouble at school.”

Kei lost the glimmer in his eyes that came with talking about dinosaurs, and when he buried his face in his dinosaur hoodie so that only his golden hair and glasses were peeking out of the enlarged dinosaur mouth, Akiteru could only tell that Kei was frowning by the hard lines at his brother's eyes. Akiteru sat beside his brother, and nudged the smaller boy with his right elbow, who let out and indignant squeal at being prodded. He set the volleyball down on his left. “If this is how you are all the time at school, it’s no wonder why you’ve got Mom worried.”

Akiteru faintly heard something that sounded like “kids are stupid” escaping from somewhere in Kei’s sweater, which only caused him to laugh. “I’m not saying you have to be friends with absolutely everyone, but if you want the teacher to stop worrying, make sure to be polite to her at all times, and don't let her see you be rude.”

As Kei’s mouth finally emerged from the dinosaur’s jaws, it became clear that Akiteru had the power to change his stubborn brother’s thinking to something drastically different.

~~~~~

By the time that Akiteru had entered his last year of middle school, he had made a name for himself in the local towns as a pretty good wing spiker. Having Kei in the stands helped his performance on the court, and it was one of the few times that he saw a genuine, wide smile on his little brother outside of their family home. As Akiteru wrote his high school entrance exams to attend Karasuno, the closest powerhouse volleyball school, he couldn't help but see the wonder on Kei's eyes at his accomplishments.

When Akiteru reached high school, he realized that the prestige of joining a powerhouse volleyball club was eclipsed by the fact that everyone there worked extremely hard for their position, and the number of club members at Karasuno could make at least three strong, if small volleyball teams at other schools. It didn't help that Coach Ukai ran practices that would put most military boot camps to shame, often causing Akiteru to collapse in his family's entryway after club practice. However, seeing Kei's excited and proud face jump from around the corner made Akiteru forget the lingering soreness in his legs, and the fact that his third lunch lay semi-digested somewhere between the gym and his home, a victim of his dedication to the sport.

It was in Akiteru’s second year after the Spring High preliminaries when the burgeoning resentment at not being able to properly play started to truly eat at his happiness. He worked twice as hard as some of the younger wing spikers, he thought. Surely that should be rewarded.

One of the few things that kept his spirits up was his practice sessions with Kei. His younger brother had recently joined a youth team, and was doing his best to avoid having to receive the ball. When Kei asked if he was still playing the same position, Akiteru agreed. He still technically was a wing spiker even if he didn't get to play properly. As Kei marveled at his brother being Karasuno’s ace, it hurt Akiteru that he couldn't correct his brother's error without severely disappointing the emotionally fragile child. He still remembered Kei's embarrassingly late reaction at age seven to finding out that Jurassic Park was fiction, and that was an experience he didn't want to repeat.

It started with lies of omission, but as Akiteru started relaying the actual events as if he were on the court himself, he knew he was too far gone to stop the torrent of untruths he unleashed, and could only hope that his deceptions would hold up until graduation.

~~~~~

It was in one of his rest days from the club early in his third year that Akiteru was surprised to hear a knock on front door of their family home. As he opened the door to investigate, he saw a small, very freckly boy nervously wringing his hands and not making eye contact as he asked, “Is Kei-kun here?”

He looked at the boy, almost wary, and asked, “Are you his friend?”

If it was possible, the boy looked even more scared. “Y-y-yes?” he stammered, only partially meeting Akiteru’s eyes.

Akiteru couldn't help the tears of pride and joy at the situation unfolding before him. _The bastard finally did it,_ he thought. That stream of thinking was interrupted by the little boy's timid voice asking if he was crying.

As Akiteru invited the freckled boy inside the house and while steadfastly not admitting to him that he was crying out of happiness and pride, Kei came to the door to investigate. Kei was not normally a particularly expressive kid, at least not around people who weren't family, but when he saw who had come over, his eyes lit up and a half smile quirked onto his face. Kei declared that he and Yamaguchi were going to go to the playground across the street, and Akiteru could only oblige.

It was after Kei closed the door that their mother came to investigate.

“Kei is playing across the street with a _friend_ ,” Akiteru reported, placing special emphasis on Kei's odd development.

His mother was just as shocked as he was at the news, and could only say a monotone “huh” in disbelief.

~~~~~

Tadashi became a near permanent fixture in the Tsukishima household. Wherever Kei went, Tadashi was sure to follow, a wide eyed expression in his face. Akiteru would sometimes wonder at how Kei had gotten Tadashi to worship the ground he walked on, but he stopped questioning it as soon as he saw that Tadashi seemed to temper Kei's caustic attitude towards everyone that wasn't family.

It was the twin admiration from Yamaguchi and Kei that kept Akiteru from completely succumbing to despair and resentment that pervaded his third year of high school, especially where his biggest rival (who Akiteru refused to name even in his thoughts) was barely 170 centimeters tall and a full year younger. It could have been his rival's intensity, it could have been his single minded focus on the game, but Akiteru found himself left in the dust with his own easy-going nature.

At the Spring Tournament prefectural finals, Akiteru’s carefully constructed web of untruths unraveled in a spectacular way. It was halfway through the first set, in one of the pauses between rallies, that Akiteru saw the blank look on Kei's tilted face in the stands opposite him in the Sendai gymnasium. He couldn't judge what kind of expression was on his own, but as the twin orange megaphones stilled in Akiteru’s hands, he could feel the horror creeping into every deep crevice within him. By the time Akiteru had reached home, the negativity pervaded him to the point that he couldn't remember whether or not his bedroom door was closed before he crumbled to the floor in anguish.

His final weeks of high school only cemented how much Akiteru had needed Kei's adoration. Now, Kei did his best to eat his meals in his room, and when his little brother was unsuccessful (which was often), Akiteru was lucky to get his presence even acknowledged beyond the ever-present scowl on Kei's face.

Akiteru found his reprieve from isolation when it came time to leave his small Miyagi town to attend university in Sendai. Since he had never played volleyball wearing a Karasuno uniform, he was able to hide the fact that he had spent the entirety of his high school career on the sidelines by simply not playing or talking about the sport he loved. Instead, Akiteru used the time not playing volleyball to make sure his projects were completed well before the due date, and maintaining a thriving social life on campus.

For his fellow partygoers looking in on Akiteru’s situation, he was met with shock, awe, and envy at the amount of attention he drew. The more drunk and bold of his acquaintances marvelled at how dense he was, at all the potential action he could have been getting. Akiteru was far from dense; he just didn’t like the nauseating feeling that overwhelmed him when his admirers invaded his personal space. He was normally good at shrugging off this attention, but when alcohol was involved, he was prone to freezing as lips made contact with his. When Akiteru ended up vomiting on second person in as many uncomfortable encounters, it was easier to go along with the story that he couldn't hold his liquor and continue to deflect attention when he was sober than the truth, which was he was the furthest from being interested in _those_ endeavours.

On his first visit home, during Golden Week, Akiteru found his father visiting from overseas, and his brother at Tadashi's for the entire holiday. Akiteru didn't know what to expect from Kei, who seemed to excel at holding grudges beyond what was typical of a pre-teen boy, but he was certainly hoping for something that wasn't this. Instead, he turned to his father, who gladly obliged him in discussing the ins and outs of his business in Vancouver.

Even as Akiteru took on an internship during the term, and started playing recreational volleyball again, he couldn't help but feel like something was missing that would make him truly happy. He would get a glimmer of hope when he would do his semi-yearly trek home that would coincide with Golden Week, Obon, and New Year's, but it seemed to go away as quickly as Kei could shut his bedroom door. Still, as the years progressed, Akiteru was able to see his tall-for-his-age brother grow into simply being tall without qualifiers, to the point where at his university graduation, fifteen-year-old Kei finally surpassed him in height.

Akiteru’s hard work at his university internship earned him an immediate spot as a full time salaryman at a successful corporation. Even though their office in Sendai wasn't their main branch, it still allowed him to visit home on occasion, rather than feeling stuck in the big city by himself. Though he had been living away from home for several years at this point, it was still a new experience to have his existence not be tied to school.

It was during his first Golden Week of not being a student when Akiteru realized that Kei was outstripping him in more ways than just in height. His mother had gotten into the habit of filling him in on Kei's successes as if his younger brother was a distant relation, and Akiteru had long ago not let it hurt him deeply, grateful for the second-hand contact that he was given despite the lingering sting of rejection. He could only smile as his mother gushed about Kei being one of Karasuno’s starting middle blockers, a position that Akiteru supposed was chosen out of spite than anything. Kei was at an intense training camp all week, and Akiteru couldn't help but feel pride mixed with a tang of regret at not being allowed to be a part of the process.

That year, when Akiteru returned home for Obon, he could tell something had changed within Kei. For one, Kei actually followed him outside after their evening meal, and was sitting on the platform as Akiteru tossed against the basketball net, just like they would when they were ten years younger. It was the small things that brought Akiteru to the present, such as Kei's feet actually being able to touch the ground from where he sat, and the sullen silence that made the rhythmic sound of the volleyball hitting the backboard sound that much louder, even as he made a crack at Kei’s face not being cute for all the frowning to try to diffuse the tension.

After a couple false starts at a conversation, Kei asked, “You still play volleyball?”

Akiteru agreed, “Yeah, I'm on a team.”

“Do you play in tournaments?”

“Yeah, we do.” Akiteru took a moment to catch the ball before he spun towards his brother. “You want to know what I still play after what happened in high school, right?”

The shocked look on Kei's face was enough to make Akiteru want to laugh at how much he was able to predict his brother's actions even after being actively avoided for the better part of four years. Still, Akiteru managed to keep his amusement to himself, and continued, “It's because of what happened in high school that I still play. When I look back on it, it was seriously frustrating, and I can't call high school a positive experience--”, an understatement that Akiteru was content to let be-- “not to mention you saw how pathetic I was. I didn't even get to experience the good things of volleyball. But, since I already knew the rush of getting a spike in, hearing the crowd cheer…”

Akiteru trailed off as he reminisced about middle school and his current team. It was not an overly long pause, and by the time he came back to himself, Kei's face still was looking at him in a way he had not seen since before that fateful game in high school.

“I want to be in a place where I can do my best until I'm satisfied.”

The gears in Kei's brain were visibly clicking, and even though the short pause ended with a simple, “Oh, I see,” the ghost of a smile that crept upon his face made Akiteru’s moment of vulnerability worth it.

Feeling heartened by the fact he had just had his first proper conversation with his brother in years, Akiteru later grabbed Kei's glasses prescription from their mother, and went shopping for an early birthday present. If Kei, who Akiteru had briefly entertained thoughts of having been replaced by a robot when things were especially bad, decided to show signs of enthusiasm for the sport that fractured their bond, it was the least he could do to encourage that love for volleyball that he damaged so long ago. It took several stores and countless people looking at him funny as he tried on every pair himself, but Akiteru finally found a set of sports goggles that seemed to do the trick.

It was worth the use of his meager savings to give Kei his birthday gift a month and a half early, even if Akiteru had to dodge Kei's acerbic barb about blocking volleyballs (“unlike some uncivilized creatures on my team, I don't intend to receive balls with my face”). It wasn't much, but Akiteru could feel the progress in mending his relationship with his brother, and couldn't help but chuckle at the irony of volleyball bringing them back together again, especially as Kei asked to practice with his team in Sendai.

Akiteru wasn't going to chance Kei's ire and annoyance by sitting in on one of his games during the Spring Tournament preliminaries. However, as soon as he watched the news looking for any scrap of information about his alma mater, he saw that Karasuno had reached the prefectural finals, and were set to play to play Shiratorizawa the following day. Remembering back to his club days, he remembered that they were Karasuno’s perennial rivals, second only to Nekoma, so as he donned his baseball cap and his mask, Akiteru set out for the Sendai gymnasium.

He purposely chose to be a few minutes late to the warm ups, figuring the likelihood of getting caught in the stands by Kei would diminish greatly if he missed being around as the players arrived. What he didn't expect was being forcibly dragged to the small Karasuno cheering section by a petite but loud woman, yelling something about a “Shiratorizawa spy”. After revealing that Kei was his brother, and cowering behind the old Karasuno banner displayed over the railing in a futile attempt to avoid being detected, Akiteru found himself welcomed by Tanaka Saeko, who was equally as brash as her brother down below on the court.

Kei was a sight to be seen as he played. Akiteru had stayed away precisely because he knew of Kei’s many insecurities, and he had messed up too much as it was. To see Kei use the height he had hated and the distrust Akiteru had unknowingly fostered to turn into the best kind of infuriating shit on the court below made tears begin to well up in his eyes, even as he commentated portions of the game to the women present.

Kei deflected more spikes as he made the Shiratorizawa players curse in frustration, and Akiteru could clearly see a level of enthusiasm he hadn't seen in his brother since elementary school. He could see the spectre of a shorter Kei in that crescent moon puffy vest he used to constantly wear, and clearly heard the dinosaur trivia from that era in Kei’s childlike voice.

“Did you know that dinosaurs didn't actually die off, they just became birds, and no one realized?”

When Kei stuffed the left-handed ace to the astonishment of the crowd, the spectre turned toward Akiteru, gave a lopsided smile to his brother, and walked into Kei’s body. Kei reached up into until the air, and as he let out a prodigious yell in celebration, the tears that Akiteru had been trying to hide fell unbidden. His dorky kid brother, who didn't hide his passions as they played in their driveway well past dark, had finally emerged among the crows of Karasuno High.

It was halfway through the fifth set when the pause between rallies seemed to drag on after Kei seemed to cradle his hand a little longer than simply taking a strong spike would suggest. As the entire Karasuno team took to the court in concern and Kei was examined by a medic, a mild sense of horror creeped into Akiteru’s mind at the thought that the return of his younger brother's spirit would be short-lived. While the medic escorted Kei off the court, Akiteru ran down the stairs, taking two steps at a time and jumping at the landings leading to the gymnasium's lobby, with the blonde manager hot on his trail.

Akiteru used his affable nature to brush off Kei's dismissive demeanor and flippant words, but his years of isolation and mean comments gave him the experience of the nuances of the sour personality of Tsukishima Kei. He didn't smile as Kei turned his back and walked towards the infirmary, as Akiteru saw the tight lines across Kei's jaw from behind as he seemingly grimaced at the first opportunity his face might not be seen. The only option that a worrying Akiteru was left was to follow Kei into the examination room.

It was a tight fit, but as Kei only needed his hand inspected, Akiteru, the two managers, Kei and the medic made it work. It was a surreal experience: not only was Kei not asking his older brother to leave the room as Akiteru half-expected from his impulsive decision, but Akiteru watched Kei, who rarely stood up for himself, bargain with the medic on how to get back into the game. They compromised with a creative use of athletic tape and a promise to ice his hand after the game.

With his hand newly taped, Kei ran at a good pace back to the volleyball court. Eschewing going back to the spectator area, Akiteru simply looked in on the game from the doorway. He watched as Karasuno fought back from an unfavorable position to actually winning, even if that tiny teammate of Kei’s gave Akiteru flashbacks to the shrimp who took his position in high school. The Tsukishima pettiness was put aside quickly as Akiteru excitedly exclaimed that his brother was the one who saved the game. With his heart lighter than it had been in years, Akiteru made his way back to his tiny apartment.

~~~~~

Akiteru may have done a few foolish things in his younger days, but he generally didn't consider himself a fool. Still, while he didn't expect the years of estrangement between himself and his little brother to be fixed overnight, he was ever the optimist and hoped for a resolution to whatever hurt Kei still clung to. The realist in him catalogued the progress in a manner that any academic researcher would have envied.

Akiteru’s visiting schedule didn't change as Kei's high school career unfolded, but Kei's attitude towards him started becoming far less glacial in nature. First, while Kei was still fond of secluding himself in his bedroom, he now often left the door open when it was just him occupying the space. This minor change allowed Akiteru to gently tease Kei as he celebrated the entrance of a new year with a drink in hand.

Secondly, Tadashi came around to the Tsukishima house on school breaks again. Not that Akiteru got to see the now-tall freckly boy who had a million times more confidence than he did in years past, as he and Kei were often holed up in his bedroom, doing homework.

Their mother scoffed as Kei led Tadashi in the direction of his room. “I like how he thinks he's being subtle.” Even though she shook her head, it was done with a smile on her face.

Akiteru was confused. “You mean they're together? But they have the door closed.”

She barked out a laugh. “My darling eldest boy who still has to give me grandchildren, it's not like those two can give me grandchildren too early. As long as he's happy, that's what I want.”

“Gross. Also keep dreaming on the grandchildren, I don't think I'm wired that way.”

She gave her son a knowing smile. “I know how you feel about family. I think you'll change your mind soon enough.”

Hours later, when Kei and Tadashi emerged for the evening meal, Akiteru quirked a small smile at the still-rumpled hair his brother sported.

~~~~~

It was partway through Kei's third year that Akiteru heard of his promotion within the company, which required relocating to Tokyo. It made it so that Akiteru was less available to following Kei’s volleyball career as closely as he could when he was still living in Sendai, but the pay raise made the move worth all the inconvenience. It was certainly a bittersweet feeling.

While Akiteru was picking out a new apartment, he purposely chose a location that would otherwise be a little too big for one person to live. He had the money, and the larger place made it so that he could keep his family close on the off-chance they came into the city to visit. So when Kei mentioned that all the pharmacy programs he was looking at were based out of Tokyo, and that even if he got an athletic scholarship, it would not cover the duration of the degree, only five of the six years, Akiteru had a plan.

It took a little bit to strategize. Kei was not only an overthinker, but a suspicious person in general, so it was difficult at first to figure out a way for Akiteru to keep his brother's fragile pride intact. He did end up coming up with a solution: offer a pittance for rent, enough that Kei wouldn't feel like he was a charity case, and give that reduced rent the condition of a weekly mandatory family meal so Kei wouldn't completely shut out his brother. The fact that this was such a good deal that Kei squirmed for months on end was a source of shared amusement between Akiteru and their mother, as they watched the youngest Tsukishima unknowingly approach the offer like the Tsukishima patriarch would approach a new business deal.

As entertaining as the process was, Akiteru was over the moon happy when Kei finally accepted his offer. It was how Akiteru ended up taking the two weeks off after his birthday, allowing him to not only drive back to Miyagi and visit family, but be there for Kei’s high school graduation. The ceremony itself went about as well as Akiteru expected, including the small moment where Kei threatened to kill his brother as Akiteru’s hug nearly squeezed the life out of him, their mother letting out a light chuckle from behind the camera and their normally stony-faced father even quirking a smile.

The moment was broken shortly after Kei went to search for Tadashi in the crowd and came back without his other half while looking exceptionally angry. It was weird, Akiteru reflected, to have his brother so seethingly angry, but not have it directed at him. He wasn't, however, on good enough terms with Kei to confront him on this anger before heading out to Tadashi's party, only barely piecing together that somehow Kei was angry at his best friend.

To take his mind off of worrying about his brother, Akiteru took to looking through old photo albums and thumb drives to sort through old pictures of themselves for blackmail material. He found one of him holding a less than a year old Kei, not yet wearing glasses, chewing on his bottom lip to puff out his already chubby cheeks and spit bubbles forming at the corners of his mouth. He flipped to another picture where Kei was roughly four, wearing a sailor suit with navy shorts, a bright smile on his face. A different picture surfaced, taken just before the Great Jurassic Park Revelation as Kei showed off his T-Rex jumpsuit, before Kei's jaunty smile started dimming into a sarcastic smirk. By the end of the night, Akiteru had collected a shoebox worth of old pictures that he knew Kei would not appreciate.

When Akiteru woke up before the sun rose the following morning, he found a text from Kei asking to be picked up early from Tadashi's. Even though he was flattered that Kei would think of him in his time of need, and that his brother's estimation of him rose enough to even ask over text, it still didn't help Akiteru’s instincts that something had gone horribly wrong. Still, he made it out to the car in fast enough time to catch the sun making an appearance in the sky, and sent Kei a text back with his progress.

By the time Akiteru got to Tadashi's, Kei was walking determinedly towards the car, with bags under his eyes and definitely looking miserable. To an outside observer, Kei simply looked like a kid coming down from his first alcoholic bender. While the stale smell that seemed to encompass Kei revealed that this was true, Akiteru could see there was more misery held in Kei’s posture than when he had left the night before.

Akiteru’s stomach rumbled, which seemed to be enough to shake Kei out of his reverie, just enough to turn the faintest shade of green. The sadistic side of Akiteru kicked in, and instead of turning towards their family home, he turned away towards fast food to get breakfast. Kei seemed disgusted at the speed that Akiteru put away his own breakfast, and he mostly pushed his own food around so that Akiteru ended up eating that too.

It wasn't until Moving Day that Akiteru realized how nihilistic Kei had gotten as he had grown up independently. Kei had put into the car a single box plus a duffel bag as the sum total of worldly possessions. A less scrupulous person would have cheered at less boxes to move; Akiteru could only worry at his brother's apathetic demeanor meaning something more.

It was not long after the university year started that Akiteru’s job picked up on a major way. If Kei was avoiding their shared home in an attempt to evade his older brother, then Akiteru wasn't around enough to verify this fact, the ninety hour work weeks dealing their toll on his mind and body.

Their weekly dinner became a form of solace to Akiteru, allowing him to cook and focus on the gossip surrounding Kei's volleyball team, which was infinitely more interesting than hearing about the state of the TSE in real time that his job required. It took a bunch of problem solving, nearly two years, and subtle people skills for Akiteru to fully piece together that the Kageyama Kei kept mentioning was one part out the high school Wonder Duo, and that his rival-turned-friend was the only thing about his high school career where the mere mention would not cause his face to reflexively sour. As patient as Akiteru could be when it concerned Kei, the couldn't help the nosy instincts that were essential to his character.

It was probably the fatigue that comes with an impending product launch that was the last straw that broke the filter between Akiteru’s brain and his mouth during one of their Mandatory Dinners.

“You changed at your high school graduation. What happened?”

Kei set his chopsticks down onto his plate as he took in a deep breath. He looked vaguely in Akiteru’s direction without making eye contact, and for a moment, Akiteru thought that Kei might start ignoring him again, but found him opening up instead.

“At the ceremony, I found Yamaguchi hugging a teammate. We had been dating for almost three years by that point. I wasn't ready to just accept the evidence, so I went to his party to prove myself wrong, and found him taking advantage of the same teammate.”

Kei's eyes flashed to Akiteru’s face, which displayed his horror openly, with a tinge of surprise at the quiet tears running down his brother's face. Even though Kei related the entire situation using the same disinterested tone, it was no wonder he hurt years later. Akiteru found himself hugging Kei in comfort, who struggled against the embrace, causing Akiteru to latch on even harder.

Surrendering, Kei muttered under his breath, “Shithead.”

Smiling, Akiteru whispered into Kei's ear, “It takes one to know one.” Secretly, Akiteru couldn't help but think something had changed fundamentally in their relationship.

It was the little things that changed. Kei started being present in their apartment more by the time Akiteru got home, and this started happening more and more until it seemed that third year Kei no longer lived at the library like he did in his first year.

Akiteru walked in the doorway of his home after a long day at the office preparing for a contract with a new partner. It was hard work, but he was within range of a promotion that would give him more job security, and less overtime. While he was still considered in the prime of his life being in his late twenties, his body was just starting to protest at the long hours hunched over a desk.

He stretched his back as he walked towards the sound of the television showing Kei's choice of anime for the day, the superhero one he had been watching obsessively lately. Not that Kei was watching it at that moment: Akiteru laughed as he saw his rather tall little brother slumped over the low table that Kei had co-opted into becoming his study zone, a puddle of drool escaping him. After Akiteru took a picture of the scene for entry into the obligatory Embarrass Ototo-chan album on his phone, he turned his attention to the still-blaring television.

It was easy to see why Kei seemed to always want to watch this show. The main character was adorable, seemed to have an inferiority complex towards his blond childhood friend, and enough gumption to power a small city on stubbornness alone. The fact he also had prominent freckles like Tadashi made Akiteru’s heart hurt with empathy, as while their situations were different, it still hurt when you cared too deeply.

~~~~~

As Akiteru reached thirty, he felt a deep pang in his heart at the thought of raising children. There were two things in the way of him getting his deepest wish: first, Akiteru found the mere thought of sex nauseating, and secondly, adoption agencies were unlikely to entrust a single man with the care of a child simply because he couldn't expect any woman to be celibate during their relationship. He briefly thought of the possibility of being a great uncle, but given how close he knew Kei and Tadashi were, Akiteru was not optimistic about getting his wish. He would know if there was something going on in Kei’s life to that degree.

It was a couple years later, as Kei started doing actual clinical rotations at local hospitals, that Akiteru saw any appreciable change to Kei’s efficient and predictable routine. In the years that Kei lived with Akiteru as an adult, he had never stayed away from their home overnight except when a volleyball tournament kept him away. When Akiteru found himself alone more often than not, he started to worry.

He didn't pry into the situation until after Kei came home from Kageyama's wedding in Miyagi. It took two full days of Kei’s eyes telling him how scared he was and his smile to show how happy he felt for Akiteru to finally break down and confront Kei about his abnormal face during their Mandatory Dinner.

“Your face is scaring me, Kei. Tell me what's going on.”

Kei fidgeted in his seat, resolutely looking at the food on his plate. “I've been seeing someone pretty seriously, and we just found out she's pregnant.”

It took a moment for Akiteru to register the words that came out of his brother's mouth, especially the pronoun of Kei's partner. Before the selfish excitement that was bubbling within him could escape, Akiteru guarded his response. “Is this a good thing or a bad thing?”

As Kei pondered the question, Akiteru was struck with how even though his baby brother was still incredibly young to be in this position at almost twenty five, there was a maturity to him that gave Akiteru some confidence in his brother's ability to parent. As Kei's face softened, revealing, “Yeah, I think it's a good thing,” Akiteru jumped up from where he was sitting, hugging his little brother with little restraint. The tears of happiness had just started to flow when Kei let out a raspy complaint about needing air.

“You know I'm going to have to meet her now. I have to see if I approve.”

When Kei brought Takahashi to one of their Mandatory Dinners a couple weeks later, Akiteru’s first reaction was to call her “Tadashi”. The resemblance was uncanny; similar concentration of freckles, same colour of hair, and even the same face shape. Remembering Kei's reaction the last time that they spoke openly about his former best friend and lover, Akiteru made sure to keep this particular thought to himself. Instead, he dug out the shoebox of childhood pictures, and saw the mischievous glee light up Kei's girlfriend's eyes at the prospect of baby Kei. As she laughed with each new picture, Kei's indignant frown deepened until Akiteru found a picture of keep at eleven years old with the exact same expression, and made a show of comparing their expressions.

In a matter of months, Kei moved out of Akiteru’s apartment in favour of Takahashi’s, and started texting Akiteru on a regular basis. When Kei did show up for their weekly Mandatory Dinners (a tradition Akiteru was glad survived), his normal, apathetic demeanor had been replaced by a resting terrified face.

“You know I'm going to be helping you, whether you want me to or not. It's all about _trust_.”

Kei seemed to relax at Akiteru’s declaration, even rolling his eyes, though his shoulders still bore the tension of his impending fatherhood to a pair of twins.

It was not long later, as Akiteru was getting ready to leave work, when the finally got the text from Kei.

_Kei: It's time. We're at the hospital_

It wasn't until Akiteru was in the parking garage, rushing towards his car, that he texted back.

_Me: (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧_

Before long, Akiteru found Kei in a waiting room by himself. The lack of colour in Kei's face made it obvious why he was outside instead of with his partner. The lack of reaction as Akiteru pointed the the public toilet he had spotted on the way in made him realize that Kei was already intimately aware of that particular location. Smiling to himself, Akiteru sat down beside his brother and started to relate some of the daily, mundane pranks between him and his colleagues, helping loosen the tension between Kei's shoulders.

It was not much longer before Kei was called into the room, and only slightly longer before Akiteru was given directions to where Takahashi would be staying. If Akiteru had not been told that they weren't actually identical twins, he wouldn't have realized any differently, as he held his new nephew Takeshi close. Except for the beginnings of freckles dusting over the chubby cheeks, they looked exactly as Kei did when he came home twenty five years ago. As Kei held Takenori, his expression softened into an expression of adoration Akiteru had never seen on his brother’s face.

After that, the Mandatory Dinners became far more of a family affair. Sometimes all four of them would come, and sometimes it was just Kei, but most often, Kei would bring his sons in an elaborate baby carrying getup that Akiteru openly photographed. He got to watch his nephews grow, and he got to dull the ache that came with wanting to rear children enough to be bearable.

It was nearly a year after Akiteru became an uncle that he noticed that Kei had opted to change his glasses frames from the slimmer variety he favoured in high school to something similar to the larger variety he wore as a young child in order to hide the enormous bags under his eyes as he juggled challenging shift work and parenting energetic infants.

More importantly, Akiteru felt glad that his brother started confiding in him without prompting.

“It feels like I'm a single parent of three sometimes. It's plainly post-partum depression, but she won't get help for it. She says she's ‘stronger than that.’ Complete bullshit, that's what it is.”

Akiteru gave a short laugh. “You really have fully turned from being an apathetic shithead so simply being a shithead.”

“Thanks, your confidence in me is inspiring,” Kei deadpanned.

Turning serious, Akiteru looked Kei directly in the eyes. “You know, if she's having a bad day and you need some time to yourself, I'm just a call away, right?”

Kei gave a non committal nod in response.

~~~~~

When Akiteru got The Call, he was just beginning to wind down from the work day to prepare for Golden Week, which was due to start in only a couple days. First, he thought it was weird that Kei would call him, as he usually preferred to snark at him over a text medium. As soon as he heard his brother's frantic plea to come over as soon as possible coupled with hearing the raspy sound of a baby that had been crying for too long, Akiteru rushed out of the office quickly enough that his colleagues could barely hear his excuse of “family emergency”.

Akiteru arrived to Kei's home at just the right time to find paramedics taking a body out of the apartment. As he rushed inside, he found the place eerily silent, and his brother sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor, shoulders slumped, while Takeshi and Takenori did their best to use him as climbing equipment, as well as their year old bodies would let them. There were smiles on his nephews’ faces as they played around their father, which told Akiteru that their situation was resolved, but it did nothing to lessen the thousand yard stare on Kei's face.

Seeing the strong grip that Kei had around his children, Akiteru only ruffled their hair as he made his way to the cupboard, and started to cook, taking care of his brother in the only way he knew how.

He ended up taking a full week off from work as Akiteru helped Kei with the mounds of paperwork that ensued. Kei himself was barely able to function after the boys went to bed, and couldn't sleep while the TV was still in his place. Even though Kei insisted on throwing out the TV completely, Akiteru instead took it home, since it was nicer than his own model. He even get permission to remote in to work in the evenings instead of staying at the office until ungodly hours in order to help Kei with his shift work schedule.

In the end, with Takahashi cremated and an altar erected in a distant corner of Kei’s apartment that he knew would not get maintained, Akiteru felt like life was moving on.

It was not much later, after he had put on the TV to some live-action children's show to entertain the boys as he worked on a product launch that Akiteru was surprised by Yamaguchi Tadashi. Tadashi didn't show up at Akiteru's apartment directly, but he did play the giraffe character that was the boys’ favourite. While the boys talked excitedly about the freckled character and how freckled people will rule the world, Akiteru could only look at the screen with his mouth open.

After this revelation, Akiteru followed Tadashi's career with interest. Kei seemed to be unaware of his former best friend's very visible career, and judging by the gossip rags, Akiteru was glad of this fact. He himself was trying to reconcile the scared, sweet boy who worshipped the ground Kei walked on to the philandering but entertaining disaster he appeared to be.

About a week after Tadashi's very public firing from the popular kids show involving widely publicized pictures of Tadashi in a compromising position with his male co-star, Kei showed up for their Mandatory Dinner without the boys in tow. It felt weird to not have the rambunctious preschoolers yell about volleyball during the entire meal, but in theory, it felt nice to just spend time with his brother. Theory and reality, however, were two different things.

Kei looked pensive as he picked away at his food. It wasn't like Kei was ever a voracious eater, not like how Tadashi ate floppy fries, but that night, Kei ate slower than usual.

“Kei, I mean, I know you have a good brain and all, but you're going to burn yourself out if you keep thinking like that.”

Kei snapped out of his reverie, and after a bit, he cocked his head as he looked at Akiteru.

“You know that feeling where you misread a situation and fuck things up beyond repair?”

Akiteru laughed. “I call that experience ‘high school.’ But seriously, you're admitting you're wrong about something?”

“I'm not saying it never happens,” Kei defended. After a pause, and seeing Akiteru's interest in the subject, he continued. “I ran into Hinata when I visited Kageyama at the hospital yesterday. He told me what actually happened during graduation.”

Akiteru leaned in towards his brother, his curiosity piqued. “What did you find out?”

Kei squirmed in his place. “Do you remember how I told you I caught Yamaguchi with one of my teammates?” Kei paused long enough for Akiteru to nod his assent. “Hinata was that teammate.”

“This is starting to sound like a daytime soap opera.”

Kei grimaced at Akiteru’s quip. “It gets worse. Yamaguchi apparently stumbled in on Hinata’s failed confession to Kageyama at graduation, and saved him from dying of alcohol poisoning at the party that night.”

“How does match with your memories?”

“He was pretty damned drunk, that’s for sure.”

Akiteru leaned back, setting down his chopsticks in the process. “Here's the thing: you may not have fucked things up beyond repair, if both of you agree to work on it. If you open the door to have him see you as you are on his terms, you just can't hold it against him if he feels like he can't forgive you.” After a thoughtful pause, he continued, “Of course, that’s assuming you run into him again. Japan is an easy place to hide if you want to.”

Kei visibly relaxed at his brother's words, and Akiteru felt a surge of pride swell within him. “Look at you, learning to let go of a grudge.”

“Shut up, asshole.”

~~~~~

Ever since Akiteru received The Call several years ago, Golden Week became a time that he dreaded more than the benefit that having time off afforded him. Normally, he would make the pilgrimage alongside Kei, who would then disappear for the better part of the week off, leaving their mother to care for her grandsons. This particular year, Akiteru was held up by a conference held in Canada, arriving back in Japan with only a couple days left in what was normally his spring vacation. Despite the hefty jet lag and the late hour of his arrival, Akiteru announced his presence to his childhood home.

He was immediately shushed by his mother, who whispered that he should take out his phone before following her. As they tip-toed towards the living room, Akiteru understood his mother’s direction: he discovered the familiar sight of his brother napping on the couch with Takeshi and Takenori, but with them was Tadashi. Even though Tadashi was sitting on the ground, he had his head resting against Kei’s side, and their fingers were intertwined. Takeshi, who Akiteru remembered was the most enamoured with Tadashi’s giraffe character, was curled up on Tadashi’s lap, his glasses going askew as he rested his head against Tadashi’s chest. Takenori had maneuvered himself so that his legs draped over the back of the couch, his growing legs almost to the point where he could bend his knees at the top.

After Akiteru made his way to his childhood room, he couldn’t help but look to the future with excitement. The dreams that enveloped him were comforting, and it felt like all the holes he had in his life were steadily being filled. While Akiteru still didn’t know what the future held, whatever happened now, he was sure that it would be entertaining.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't take credit for beautiful ideas that are not mine. One full scene was lifted directly from [this comic](http://bennettflynt.tumblr.com/post/172973977875/little-bros-first-friend), which is perfect and fits with canon so well.


	4. More Than A Feeling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Travelling for work is Tobio's least favourite thing about his post-professional volleyball career, but with Shouyou at his side, he feels like it could be worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually wrote most of this on Kagehina day this year. However, it was also a giant travel day for me as well, as I had to fly out for a massive exam. Better late than never?
> 
> The song I took inspiration from is [More Than A Feeling](https://youtu.be/SSR6ZzjDZ94) by Boston.

It may have just been a relatively short flight from Hiroshima back to Tokyo, but Tobio felt exhausted by the day's events. He was not a fan of airports and airplanes in general, but in his front-of-camera sports journalism job that Shouyou had seemingly hand-made for him after his career-ending knee injury, it made the ordeal a necessary evil. The constant traveling also made it difficult for Tobio to spend time with Shouyou in peace as he pleased, and while they worked together as a matched set, the itinerary in the road was tight and efficiently managed, meaning little rest time for the two men, especially when they risked the vitriol that Yamaguchi deals with regularly with every thoughtless move. As Shouyou flopped face first into their shared bed, Tobio took the opportunity to shower away the remainder of the fetid, recirculated airplane air from his body.

As the warm water created rivulets down his body, Tobio could not help but remember why he hated airplanes. It was about two months into having to travel for a living for Setter’s Circle that Shouyou became deliriously ill while on camera, thrusting Tobio into an uncomfortable position of finding out just how stubborn his partner was after trying to get Shouyou out of the camera's view. The scariest part of the experience was not the fact that Shouyou was getting naked on live TV, but that his pupils were very clearly two different sizes as Tobio did his best to use his body to preserve a modicum of his partner's dignity.

Either way, because of that day, they were no longer a live show, but relegated to a seven second delay.

Tobio was shaken out of his bad memories by Shouyou's arms surrounding his waist. It wasn't as if they were hiding their relationship on screen: there were many gifs on social media of Tobio having to usher Shouyou out of the camera's view by pushing on his butt (luckily still covered by boxer-briefs), as the shorter man wouldn't move otherwise, and many more of casually affectionate gestures from Shouyou that some of their more dedicated fans took as proof that they were a couple fit to lead Japan into the new century.As Tobio took a moment to shampoo Shouyou's hair, he couldn't help but marvel at how Shouyou was finally his, and no homophobic comment could take that away from him.

With both their bodies sufficiently cleaned, Tobio laid his tired head on the pillow, barely remembering to get under the covers. Shouyou was not faring much better, but after a run-in with an airport sake bar and a subsequent nap on the plane, he had a small amount of energy in reserve, and slid himself on top of Tobio. After taking the high ground, Shouyou made his move.

Even though Tobio could barely keep his eyes open, he counted himself lucky that Shouyou was still impossibly tiny, never having broken the 170 cm barrier, and only poised to lose height, making it easy to shrug him off if he truly was not feeling the shenanigans. As it was, it was unhurried and gentle, as Shouyou ground himself against Tobio’s hip bone. The languid kisses reminded Tobio of how much he was loved, and of how much he didn't want to give up this feeling after pining after the man for close to ten years. Their slow, lazy way had woken up Tobio in all the necessary ways, so that when Tobio reciprocated fully, the sound that came out of Shouyou was delicious.

Tobio flipped the both of them into their sides so that they both were using their remaining energy efficiently. The slow, steady movements were unhurried, and Tobio felt heartened as Shouyou clung onto him just as much as he generally latched onto Shouyou's natural charisma. As Tobio reached between them, he heard Shouyou keen at the shared contact, the time on the road taking a toll on Tobio’s stamina. It was enough to send him over the edge, and with a final thrust, Shouyou finished not long after.

While Shouyou's breathing evened out, Tobio's mind floated to that place between consciousness and dreams. He could feel relaxation seep into every crevice of his body, and for a short time, the could imagine himself back in high school, still able to play volleyball with his best friend at his side. As Tobio adjusted his leg to not bother his knee while he slept, he felt Shouyou's hair tickling his chest, and he couldn't help but think that while what he had over a decade ago was great, what he had now was even better.


	5. I Wanna Be Sedated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If Yamaguchi had a choice, he wouldn't be at this convention, but there's something lucrative about these events that makes it so he can't say no.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Full disclosure: I used to help run a nerd convention of a decent size, and while I have next to no knowledge of what the back stage of a Japanese convention is like, I do know the policies of my home convention very well.
> 
> The title is pulled from [the song by the Ramones.](https://youtu.be/bm51ihfi1p4)

“I don't think I can do this.”

Tadashi peered out through a curtain at the convention crowd waiting for him to come out to the booth to autograph whatever the attendees could come up with. He had voiced a couple seasonal anime to supplement his income, and while that was not the real reason for his popularity, it was enough to garner him an invite as a guest to this medium-sized anime convention. By the time he looked back at Kei and the boys, Tadashi's face was nearly devoid of colour, and he looked like he was about to throw up.

“Didn't you do a ton of these before?” Kei had a concerned look on his face. “What's different now?”

Tadashi scratched the back of his neck. “These are lucrative, and I don't exactly have the most stable of jobs.” Tadashi paused as he squirmed in his seat. “Also, I may have a… reputation.” His fingers found each other, and Kei couldn't help but be reminded of when they were ten years old and Tadashi worshipped the ground he walked on. “Some of the ‘normal’ things don't feel right now that I'm no longer single.”

“So you were a man-whore who slept with his groupies while at work?” If Tadashi had been able to look at Kei, he would have seen that Kei had an amused look on his face. Instead, Tadashi examined the coarse fabric of the pipe and drape separating them from the throngs of people beyond.

Kei moved forward, crouching so that their faces were level, and turned Tadashi's face towards his. “We can't change our past, we can only control our present.”

“So you don't care about my past.”

Kei hesitated. “It's more that I can't judge. They--” he motioned towards the six year old twins engrossed in putting together a cheap plastic dinosaur fossil-- “were conceived in a hospital duty room. They are also one of the best things that has ever happened to me.” Kei leaned in close, the proximity causing his breath to ghost on Tadashi's neck. “Plus, I think we've more than capitalized on your added ‘experience.’”

Tadashi flushed at the memories, but he wasn't able to retort, because it was at that moment that Tadashi’s handler mentioned something about “showtime”. While Kei muttered something to the handler about being back to collect the children shortly, Tadashi reluctantly rose to his feet, the memory of Kei's proximity spread through him from that point beneath his ear. Tadashi was brought to reality as Kei gently pushed him towards the opening where the crowd was waiting by placing his hand on Tadashi's back.

Tadashi knew Kei was a generally private person. Their high school teammates were generally clueless about their relationship while they were still in Karasuno, as evidenced by Ennoshita's face when he found out what really happened as he yelled at Kei about volleyball in Tokyo so long ago. He also had invited Kei to enough red carpet events over the past year with the full knowledge that his 194-centimeter-tall partner hated to be the centre of attention, and actively avoided the spotlight except in movies that featured him as a character, as in Ennoshita's  _ Flight of the Crows _ series, often leaving Tadashi alone in the public view. However, he was surprised on that day to find Kei a half step behind him, even in front of the adoring crowds who at least knew of him from the movies about their first year of high school.

Tadashi felt Kei's hand move from the small of his back to his shoulder as he took a seat in the booth. Kei gently angled Tadashi's face upwards, and used the moment to press a kiss to his partner's forehead. The murmur of the crowd caused Kei to smirk, and Tadashi flinched a bit at Kei’s beard tickling his forehead at the motion. Kei's new addition was something that Tadashi wasn't used to yet, but it was certainly a welcome development.

The contact was gone just as quickly at it arrived, and while Tadashi could hear the scandalized murmur of the crowd in front of him, he turned to where Kei was returning to his children. Before Kei could completely disappear behind the curtain, he turned towards Tadashi with a mischievous glint in his eye.

_ That rat bastard _ , Tadashi thought.

Tadashi settled in, putting on his public face, catching two twin-sized dinosaurs out of the corner of his eye making their way out of the large hall.

~~~~~

Tadashi did his best to act gracious and enjoy his time with his fans, but after being asked to sign a sex toy (he declined) and a pair of underwear (a clean pair, and way less weird than the sex toy, so he obliged) in amidst the normal stock of photos he had available at his booth and figurines that were widely available through the vendors, he was feeling done with the whole venture. As soon as he found himself past the pipe and drape, he found his way outdoors.

While Tadashi leaned against the concrete wall of the convention centre, he took a long drag off his cigarette. For the most part, the smoking was relegated to a specific time in his checkered past where he was not proud of his actions, for much the same reasons that drinking was left behind too. However, smoking seemed to take the edge off of his worst anxieties, and allowed him some time away from the zoo on the other side of the wall. Tadashi allowed the coolness of the brick wall to permeate through his back to calm his thoughts as he breathed in the smoke.

The cigarette neared its end, and therefore his moment of zen, so Tadashi made his way back into the building for his panel, the most anxiety-inducing portion of this ordeal. It was the one time that his audience had easy access to him, and considering some of the more interesting items he had been asked to sign even just earlier that day, Tadashi felt justified in feeling nervous about his upcoming venture. Taking a deep breath, he summoned his public face and entered the vast building.

After dismissing the harsh words from his handler about slipping away so close to his panel, Tadashi made his way to the large stage area where he was meant to be. The fact that he still had a lump in his throat and his mouth watered as if he was about to vomit had ceased to be something that bothered him during the brief time that he attended university: Tadashi instead found that acting was simply redirection of personal energy into something new, something not himself. This panel was simply an improvised stage show where he played at being confident.

A familiar voice over the microphone gave an introduction to him and his notable anime credits, and as he walked out onto the stage, Tadashi inwardly cursed at the sight of Hinata on the stage. As he smiled and waved to his fans in the audience below, he faintly recalled that one of Hinata's side projects with Kageyama was to consult on some of the more realistic sports anime. Tadashi could tell that he wasn't the only one not happy about this reunion: Hinata's eyes were as tight with guilt as the last time Tadashi had arrived with Kei to visit Kageyama before he ran away with the kids to play volleyball.

Still, Tadashi had to admit that Hinata was a pretty good actor himself, taking a social nature which couldn't be taught and giving an award-winning, charming performance as the moderator for the session, purely for the benefit of the crowd below. Tadashi summoned just enough of his university self, the one who was closest with Hinata, to add to the performance the other man was leading.

It did not stop the train wreck that was about to unfold over the next half hour.

Tadashi's limbs felt heavy as they seemingly moved on their own, and the running commentary that his brain supplied in a near constant basis for his own amusement became a crowd pleaser as the filter between his brain and mouth was frozen open. After the third disparaging remark about Hinata in and hours behavior in high school, Hinata leaned in, and muffled both their microphones.

“If you keep this up, you'll regret it.”

After another short joke at Hinata’s expense, Hinata did end up getting Tadashi back for being the punchline of many of his jokes. As Tadashi launched into a story about the lengths he would go for a good set of soggy fries, Hinata disappeared off stage for a moment, and it wasn't until he saw himself dressed in cosplay that Tadashi understood where his former friend went. By the time that Hinata reappeared onto the stage, Tadashi was laughing just as hard as the audience at the sight of him clutching a distinct red box while in red pigtails, an old-timey dress, and a straw hat which he had 'borrowed’ from his co-star from the time he had played Gilbert Blythe in the production of Anne With The Red Hair.

Or it was the larger than life version of him in a set of hot pink cardboard samurai armour that none of the audience had seen because it came from Hinata's personal collection from the single year they attended the same university.

While Hinata looked at him with a smug look on his face, Tadashi realized his mistake in underestimating the workaholic journalist that Hinata had become, who seemed to be able to find photo evidence of his most embarrassing moments at the drop of a hat.

~~~~~

With that experience over, Tadashi ignored his burning need to down a full bottle of sake in one gulp in favor of whipping out his phone to text Kei.

_ Me: im done. _

Tadashi's calm broke when Kei seemingly did not respond right away. While the reality was that it was only a couple minutes between his text and the reply, Tadashi's old anxieties started taking more of a hold while he waited, staring at the blue-tinged light emanating from the screen. As Tadashi's handler caught up to where he was hiding, he felt his phone buzz in reply.

_ Tsukki: K _

Tadashi's blood pressure spiked, as normally Kei took care in ensuring his grammar and punctuation was impeccable, even in texts.

_ Me: where are u now? _

Tadashi's staring contest with his phone took less time as he waited for the reply.

_ Tsukki: snmaasg _

It took Tadashi a few moments before he could fully parse Kei's meaning, until a fond memory of video games as a child popped into his head. Turning to his handler, Tadashi asked, “Are there any consoles to play here?”

The short woman in plain clothes took out her phone, and after a quick search, determined that there was indeed a video game section. Smiling with his deductive powers, Tadashi put on his beanie and his black hoodie and followed his handler to the opposite end of the complex.

It was an old habit to worry about Kei when he was being non-responsive, but it was a lingering effect from the end of high school that Tadashi supposed would remain with him on some level for the rest of his days. The anxiety rolled over him in waves with each as he made his way to the video games and to the crowd gathering near one of the Nintendos. As Tadashi approached the centre of where people were gathering to spectate, he burst into a grin.

In front of the TV, the three Tsukishimas gave their razor-sharp focus on the free-for-all melee on the screen. Well, free-for-all was really a stretch in this case: Kei was giving hands on instructions on how to not rely on button mashing to his sons, and the poor non-Tsukishima Luigi was caught between Kei's Ness bolts from the side, Takeshi's Pikachu lightning aerials and Takenori's archery skills as Pit.

With Luigi taking a final flight into the simulated sunset, his player placed the controller down with disgust and stormed away. Tadashi picked it up, and found himself at the receiving end of identical curious glances from all three Tsukishimas. With the character selection menu's music giving a soundtrack to the moment, Tadashi selected Sheik from the menu, and found the spot to adjust the handicap. It looked like Kei's existing handicap was much lower than it would have been in high school, and Tadashi cranked his to the same degree. Turning to the boys, Tadashi smiled mischievously, and started the match.

It was not long after Tadashi and Kei began trash-talking each other, and Tadashi was ready for the inevitable tag team tactics from from the other end of the TV. The crowd was bigger and was wowed as Tadashi pulled Kei out of the air with Sheik's chain, all while Kei was chasing Tadashi with Ness's lightning ball. While Takenori chased Tadashi and Kei into the upper reaches of the board, Takeshi took the opportunity to shock everyone in the air above his Pikachu, throwing everyone into irretrievable distance. The match counted down to its conclusion, enough that none of the other players could recover.

The mostly-quiet twin crowed his victory louder than his brother complained at the lack of fairness about the situation. As Kei distracted the twins from the fight waiting to happen, Tadashi felt ready to enjoy the day.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a [Pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.io/littlemisstpk) where I post my comments about the manga I'm reading, as well as some writing thoughts. I'm always up for talking!


End file.
